Tuesday, 1 May 2007I'll bring troops home: Clinton
US Senator Hillary Clinton says she does not expect President George W.Bush to pull American troops out of Iraq before he leaves office, even though the soldiers are "not even sure whose side they are fighting on".
"If this president does not end this war before he leaves office, when I am president, I will," the Democratic hopeful for the 2008 elections told an enthusiastic crowd of more than 3000 at a high school in Reno, Nevada. Mr Bush's term ends in January 2009.
When some in the gymnasium shouted "Bring them home", she replied, "That's what we're trying to do".
Senator Clinton said she doubted Mr Bush would ever go along with a military spending Bill with a timetable to begin redeploying troops out of Iraq by October.
'I wish I could tell you that he will change direction, but I think we are going to have a very difficult time because he is convinced he is right."
Making her first campaign visit to Reno, the former first lady said she advocates redeploying US combat troops "immediately".
"We should take them out of this sectarian civil war where they're not even sure whose side they are fighting on," she said.
"We should also do more to require the Iraqi Government to defend itself. We can't win this war for them. It's their war."
Senator Clinton's address came after four US soldiers were killed in Baghdad at the weekend, taking the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq last month to more than 100.
In further violence yesterday, a suicide car bomber struck an Interior Ministry checkpoint in Harthiyah, a predominantly Sunni area in western Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10, police said.
Also in western Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded on a commercial street in Baiyaa, killing one civilian and wounding two others, police said.
Gunmen also killed a retired brigadier in the Iraqi army while he was driving his car in south-west Baghdad, police said.
Meanwhile, a formal investigation began yesterday to decide if a US Army officer accused of "aiding the enemy" while he ran a US detention centre in Iraq should face a court-martial.
Lieutenant-Colonel William Steele appeared at the investigation at a US military base near Baghdad's airport. He has been in detention in Kuwait since last month.
Evidence will be presented during an Article 32 hearing expected to last two or three days. AP
01.05.2007
Canberra |
Tuesday, 1 May 2007
US Foreign Policy
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